Chapter 27
***
Oh Jang-seok was the most important person in the world to himself.
Back during the Korean War, he fled south with his father, and ever since then he'd survived on his own in a Republic of Korea that had once been nothing but barren wasteland.
The only reason he'd been able to survive was because he lived only for himself.
He lived desperately.
Bowing his head before those above him was routine, and he ran himself ragged trying to win favor with the powerful.
All of it was for himself.
But then.
But then he was told he had lung cancer.
"N-no way."
No way.
He just had a little trouble climbing stairs.
"Why me!!"
No way.
He just coughed a little.
"You clueless little punk!! Are you a doctor!? A doctor?!"
He forgot all about the fact that the other man had come with the doctor.
All he could see was that brat, blabbering on his own that he had cancer.
"I just cough!! And I only cough up a little bloody phlegm sometimes!! Getting winded when I walk is just because I'm old!!"
He shouted as if he were fighting for his life.
To avoid that indifferent gaze looking at him.
To avoid the pitying eyes of the doctor behind that brat.
He shouted desperately.
.
.
.
Back home, Oh Jang-seok threw down his jacket in a huff.
"Cough! Cough!"
An all-too-familiar cough came out.
He spat out the phlegm in his mouth and sat down just as the door opened.
"Dad, haven't you been coughing way too much lately? I told you to go to the hospital."
"I know my own body better than anyone!! I survived the Korean War in this body!!"
Me, sick?
Lung cancer, of all things?
What a joke.
I don't even smoke to stay healthy, so why the hell would I get lung cancer?!
He huffed in irritation and looked at his son.
What a frail little kid he was.
Noblesse oblige?
What?
I worked my ass off to earn this, so why would I share it with a bunch of beggar bastards?
I pay the people who work their wages, and that's it.
As long as I stay within what's legal, that's enough.
"Dad, I made a hospital appointment."
"You little bastard!! Didn't I tell you not to spend money on crap like that! Didn't I!"
"It's not expensive, so please just go."
This spineless bastard.
How was he supposed to survive in a harsh world like this?
Just as he was about to refuse and tell them to get a refund, what had happened earlier flashed through his mind.
The brat who had come with the doctor.
What he'd said.
Lung cancer.
"...All right."
In the end, Oh Jang-seok nodded at his son's continued urging.
And so, the next day.
After the examination ended, the doctor said with a grave expression,
"...You have lung cancer."
"...What?"
He couldn't believe it.
Lung cancer?
The doctor's words as he went on and on in front of the X-ray didn't even reach his ears.
"M-me... are you saying I'm going to die?"
"You need to be admitted right away for chemotherapy. Even then, we're still somewhat worried..."
At the word "admitted," he felt his mind go blank.
He had run himself to death until now.
And yet.
And yet the ending was this?
"Ha. Haha..."
He laughed.
His situation was just too ridiculous.
He had lived so fiercely, and this was how it ended.
Tears burst out of him in his grief, and he eventually nodded.
Stubbornness, desire, anger, and cravings he couldn't even explain.
All of it was mixing into the tears and streaming down.
***
I came to the driving school, but construction was underway.
Reinforcing a building that looked like it could collapse at any moment.
And demolishing the restaurant that had been slated for destruction.
The changed future of this driving school was slowly drawing closer.
"St-student... if you drive like that, we'll all die..."
The driving instructor sitting beside me said, gripping the handle next to him tightly.
The S-curve course is ridiculously hard.
How the hell do people even do this?
"Okay, okay. Don't jerk the wheel that sharply. Right. There."
The instructor turned out to be a better teacher than I'd expected.
Thanks to him, I learned the S-curve properly.
"If you're going to drive like that again, you really ought to be driving a good car."
"How expensive of a car do I need?"
"...I'm kidding, kid. Anyway, you worked hard today too, and with a few more days of practice, you'll pass the skills test."
After the skills test, I'd still have to take the road test.
He said another instructor would handle that, and he chuckled.
"By the way, hasn't our academy changed a lot?"
"There's construction going on here and there."
"Right. I heard the director got lung cancer, so his son took over as director."
The first thing he did after becoming director was replace the old facilities.
Thanks to that, we're taking a break in a container now, but he grinned and said it was still much better than the old building.
"What I especially like is that they got rid of the cafeteria."
The lousy cafeteria disappeared, and now we have to sort out meals on our own.
Some people bring lunch boxes, and others have to go out to eat.
He cackled, saying it was better than the old cafeteria.
"That old geezer totally changed once he found out he had lung cancer."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He suddenly started donating money and acting like he'd transcended the world or something."
He said casually that people change when they're near death.
"Oh. Time's up. Park it over there and head out."
"Yes, sir."
I parked the car in the lot as the instructor had said.
"Then see you next time~!"
The instructor waved leisurely as he walked away.
Leaving him behind, I headed for the parking lot.
"Thanks for your hard work."
"It wasn't anything."
A terrifying-looking man with a big build and a small scar on his face.
My bodyguard, Kwak Cheol-hon, had been leaning against the car and greeted me with a smile.
"But, sir."
"Yes?"
"Once you get your driver's license, what am I supposed to do about your security..."
"Well, I'm not exactly the type who likes running around outside all the time, am I?"
I was only getting it because it felt a little weird to have two sports cars and no driver's license.
It'd probably just become a license that just sits in a drawer.
"I'll have to keep relying on you, Cheol-hon."
"This is my job too, and thanks to you, I was able to properly say goodbye to my grandmother, so please don't call it a favor."
"Haha."
Kwak Cheol-hon's expression looked brighter after seeing his grandmother off.
"Now you're on your own too, Cheol-hon."
"Yes."
"Aren't you going to get married?"
"Hmm..."
Kwak Cheol-hon looked awkward.
He was thirty this year.
It was an age when he could start thinking about marriage.
"I wonder whether I'll have the time to meet a woman."
"Hm."
I looked at him.
And smiled.
"I think you'll meet one soon. Come on. Anyway, let's go home."
"W-wait a second, sir. Are you serious?"
"Ah. I'm hungry."
"Sir!!"
You will meet her.
Probably around next week.
But his desperate pleading was funny, so I decided to keep it a secret until we got home.
.
.
.
It was when I lay down on the bed after finishing another satisfying dungeon run today.
"-Mr. Noa."
"Yes."
Han Yuna contacted me.
What is it?
"My father introduced someone to me."
A guest, huh.
Time to get back to my main job.
"Yes. Where should I go?"
"-I'll come pick you up."
Then I should wait.
While I was rolling around on the bed, she contacted me, so I went downstairs.
Han Yuna was waiting in front of a Korean-made midsize car.
"Looks like it's not some party venue today."
"Yes. Let's go."
We got in the car and drove for about thirty minutes.
Where we arrived after driving through Seoul's nighttime streets was an unassuming dakgalbi restaurant.
"....?"
I hadn't exactly wanted an expensive place, but this was someone Chairman Han Jun-ho had introduced.
I thought they'd be someone with fairly high social standing, but we were meeting in a place like this?
"The person you're meeting today likes the dakgalbi here."
"Ah."
If that's the case, it can't be helped.
Following her inside, I found several people there.
Among them were Chairman Han Jun-ho and an old man I'd never seen before.
"Welcome! Mr. Kang!"
"Long time no see. Have you been well?"
"Haha. Been well my ass. I've had no end of trouble cleaning up after that damn son's mess, so I should be satisfied with this much. Still, thanks to you, this is enough."
Chuckling, he pointed at the old man sitting there.
"This is Mr. Kim Seok-chun. He's someone I owed a great deal to back in the day."
He saw me and bowed his head politely in greeting.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Kim Seok-chun."
"Hello. I'm Kang Noa. Please feel free to speak casually."
"Haha. Then I'll gladly do that."
Smiling, he took the hand I held out.
"He's retired now, but he was hugely successful in Japan."
"Chairman Han. Don't flatter me too much. It wasn't that big a deal."
"Didn't you practically take over an entire region? On top of that, even the Liberal Democratic Party wants to bring you in."
"Politics smells far too much like shit for me to have any intention of going into it."
After saying that casually, Old Mr. Kim Seok-chun held out his glass to me.
"Do you drink well?"
"I can handle it, more or less."
"Then have a drink..."
Soju.
I'm not much for soju.
"Khh!!"
"Haha. Seems you don't really know the taste of liquor very well. Alcohol is Korean soju, after all."
Isn't it just chemical alcohol?
But only after downing it twice in a row did he take a bite of the dakgalbi.
"I heard from Chairman Han that you're an outstanding fortune teller?"
"Yes."
"And I asked my subordinates, and it seems you've done quite a lot."
"Did you watch my broadcast?"
"Hmm."
He nodded gravely.
Then he looked straight at me.
"I'm going to ask seriously."
"But first, the card."
Taking the card I handed him, he grinned and flipped it lightly.
Then, smiling, he asked.
"What do you think I'm going to ask?"
"You're going to ask me to find your lost younger sister, aren't you? Kim Soo-gyeong, the one you were separated from during the war."
"....!!!"
His eyes widened.
Chairman Han was shocked.
Han Yuna was, as always, just as impassive as ever.
"Huh... they're not kidding when they say you're the real deal. S-so? My sister?! Is my sister safe? Can I, c-can I meet her?"
His brusque, cool demeanor was completely gone.
All that remained was a boyish look of hope that he could meet the family he'd been separated from long ago.
So I said.
"Yes."